Nokia posts $1-billion quarterly loss, considers selling patents
Nokia’s bad run continues as the Finnish phone company reported a $1-billion operating loss in 2012 second quarter.
The company, which has been laying off thousands of employees and shutting down various facilities, also posted a $1.73-billion net loss. It managed to bring in more than $9 billion in revenue, but the company continues to hurt.
Nokia met analysts’ expectations and sold 4 million units of its flagship phone, the Lumia 900, but after it was announced the phone will not be able to update to the next version of Windows Phone, the company had to cut its price in half. It only sold 600,000 phones in the U.S.
Overall, Nokia’s sales of smartphones were down 14% compared to 2011. Feature phone sales, though, increased 4% from last year and the first quarter. Those sales added up to 73 million feature phones sold.
And as Nokia tries to position itself for a turnaround, a new report says CEO Stephen Elop is considering selling some of the company’s patents, which are worth $6 billion -- the bulk of the company.
Elop, who is quoted in the Wall Street Journal as wondering what might have been had these patents landed on Nokia phones, said the company may have to sell some of the patents in order to raise cash.
“We may decide there could be elements of it that could be sold off, turned into more immediate cash for us — which is something that is important when you’re going through a turnaround,” Elop said, according to the Journal.
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